The Summer Remains MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, June 23, 2015

“Because being disabled makes you Other, and that erases you, because nobody in the world wanted to be Other.” - Summer JohnsonI’m the type of reader that if I know my heart is going to ache while reading a book, I may just go to the end of the book so I can deal with the angst while reading. I was forewarned to not do that with The Summer Remains and I’m grateful I didn’t. It would have completely ruined the journey of Summer and Cooper.Being the parent of a disabled child, I completely understand the scrutiny, isolation and cynicism that Summer felt. No one wants to be Other. Everyone wants to be accepted, however, our society shamefully isn’t programmed that way for anyone who doesn’t fit the current mold. And Summer is Other. At least until she meets Cooper Nichols.Let me say this about Cooper….the world would be a much better place if there was a bit of Cooper in all of us. I don’t want to say more about him because you need to meet him on your own. He’s that incredible.Seth King basically ripped out my heart, tore it up a bit and then gracefully, passionately and gently put it back in. This is a modern day love story complete with social media and its highs and lows, as well as the real life struggles of two “differently damaged” people coming together to create a powerful message.The eloquence of Seth King’s writing just swallowed me whole. I smelled the sea. Felt the sand in my toes. The hospital disinfectant. Felt the pain as if I was a part of the scene. Yes, it’s just that fantastic.If there is one book you must read this year, it’s The Summer Remains. It will capture your heart and soul, hold onto both, and not let go.

It's so hard to describe The Summer Remains because honestly most words just don't do it justice. You can literally feel how Seth poured his heart and soul into this book.I swear Summer and Cooper will steal your heart from the beginning. The Summer Remains has ruined any other books for me. It is so different from any romance novel I've ever read. It's not the same "boy with troubled past has girl save him and they live happily ever after". It's pure breathtakingly beautiful love in the most amazing and tragic way.Summer is strong and funny. Cooper is just I don't even know, perfect?This book shows us how love can take over and ruin people in the best possible way. Please, please one click this book. It's truely life changing, it will honestly have you walking away looking at life in a completely different way.There's nothing more I can say, you need to read this book for yourself and experience every single second for yourself.Seth is so talented, everything he writes is amazingly written. But The Summer Remains has stolen a piece of my heart like absolutely no other book has. It will honestly stay with me forever.

First of all, I want to start by telling you that I finished this book over a week ago. It's only now I'm able to catch my breath and form words, that I can tell you how much this book grabbed my heart. I think the best way for me to express my thoughts in a few words would be, heartbreakingly beautiful.I read books on a daily basis and never before have words touched my soul and etched themselves in there as much as they did during 'The Summer Remains'. I felt as though my emotions went on several trips around the universe throughout the pages. They soared and they fell, they screamed and they laughed, but most of all they were forever captured by two beautiful characters named, Summer and Cooper.Summer was a breath of fresh air to me and I instantly fell in love with her, I mean how could I not? She's cute, strong, funny, extremely witty and above all else she's nice and down to earth.It was no different when it came to Cooper, I was swooning from the minute I met him. He's so real, charming, gorgeous and just an all around beautiful person.You can feel how much Seth King put his heart and soul into every single page and every single word of this book. His author note at the end just sealed that knowledge for me. It was so devastatingly profound that it left me smiling and sobbing at the same time. Seth's writing is a force to be reckoned with and this book just proves that.The Summer Remains is not just a romance novel, it is so much more than that, yes you will cry, yes you will laugh and yes you will fall in love, but if I can tell you one more thing at all, it's that you'll be for ever changed.Thank you so much Seth King for writing and sharing such a soul touching and beautiful story with us, it was a pleasure and a privilege to read.

The Summer Remains by Seth King4.5 stars!!“…sometimes you just gotta jump, and then make your parachute on the way down.”Well, anyone that follows me knows that I love a tear jerker and this one succeeded on very many levels. Wow, this was one emotional book, yet so uplifting all the same. There are many messages contained within these pages, messages that will make you look at life differently, look at yourself differently and look at others differently. Life is what you make it and there is always that special someone for everyone, no matter when you meet or how long you have together, their presence will stay with you forever, just like this book will stay with me forever.“Hi. My name is Cooper Nichols, and I am absolutely swimming in love with a girl named Summer Johnson.”Seth King can write, I am still dumbfounded that this was written by a twenty-five year old, the writing is so mature yet youth shines through, the writing is moving and captivating, yet humorous and funny, in short, this book was perfectly balanced. I highlighted so much of this book, haunting yet beautiful words that together made me melt, swoon, cry, laugh and every other possible conceivable emotion in between. In short, it was just amazingly poetic.Summer is broken on the inside and the outside, yet she doesn’t let her health and her scars alter her lust for life. Even though she has lived a really sheltered life through health and over protective parents, she hasn’t lost her snark and her sass or lost that beautiful person underneath. Like any girl her age she wants to experience life, she wants to make the most of the hand that life dealt her and the one thing that she feels she has missed the most is love. Every girls dream is to fall in love, but she has never been in the right place to find it. Her social media is blowing up with friends her age getting engaged, getting married and having a family and she desperately wants a piece of that for herself, so she puts herself out there, she joins a dating app and in true Summer style, she is nothing but blunt.“Hi. I’m Summer. As you can see in my pictures, I’m kinda mangled. Childhood accidents suck. If that’s something you can get over, swipe right. If you chew with your mouth open, count NASCAR races among your hobbies, take mirror selfies, or refer to girls as “ s***s,” “b****es” or “cum catching s**t b****es,” then swipe left. If not, I’m your girl. I like reading, confetti cake, cynicism, hate-watching the Kardashians, and not much else. Come dislike the world with me.”After many a doozie Summer gets a message from Cooper, at last a seemingly sane and intriguing match, little does Summer know that this meeting will give her the summer she has always wanted and the one thing that she has always wanted to do.“You’re beautiful, and beautiful things don’t demand attention. It just gravitates to them.”Cooper too had his scars, but he didn’t wear his, he kept them inside, he internalized everything. But as good as he was for Summer, Summer was good for him. These two were made for each other and so Seth King brought to life one of the most beautiful, heart breaking, soul reaching love affairs that I have ever had the pleasure to read.“You know, we all have scars, Summer . If yours are only on the outside, you should consider yourself lucky.”This book made me feel…every single emotion purged off the page and hit me straight in the heart, I lived their story with them, and it was captivating from the very first word until the very last. The authors note at the end was another emotional kicker and once I had read that and the tears had subsided once again I realised how this author had captivated Summer and Coopers story. You felt the blood, sweat, tears, heart and soul that this author gave on every page, it brought this couples story to life and now that I have read it, I understand it all.“Because right then and there, for the first time in my life, I decided to tell my brain to shut the eff up and let my heart take the wheel instead.”I loved this book with a passion, while there were a few little things that niggled at me, hence the 4.5 even those didn’t detract from what a beautiful story this was. I highly recommend this book to everyone and will remind you to have the tissues nearby, you will need them, but at the end you will stand back in awe and admire the fantastic book you have just read. Seth King is a new author to me, but he will definitely not be a stranger.“Let love destroy you – God knows life is going to, anyway.”

Ok I just want to say that the end of this book broke my heart. That being said I wasn't sure I liked it at the beginning. I felt the book was very philosophical and Summer's thoughts were extremely deep. At times I felt a little too inept to be reading such heavily loaded words. I felt they went over my head. I thought I was going to end up being 'that girl' who didn't enjoy the popular book. All the reviews are so heart felt and moving and at first I just wasn't 'getting' it. However, I'm soooo pleased I continued.The love that is written in this book is so real. The descriptions of such a beautiful connection between Summer and Cooper, I've experienced them, I continue to experience them, I can relate. And Cooper, what an absolute dream x The sorrow, grief, happiness, joy, beauty, frustration, just all of it, was written with truth and honesty and immensity of feeling. I began highlighting quotes all over this book. I even made a few teasers as I felt compelled to put images to the words I was soaking up.As I've mentioned, the ending broke my heart. I read until 2:30am finishing up and was torn apart. I was holding out for a different outcome as I'm sure most were, yet the ending again was the making of this book. It definitely deserves all the five stars I'm giving it, and then some. This book just made me feel... good, bad and ugly throughout. Although it was hard going, I loved this book.

What did I think of this book?! Oh god. It was emotional. And heartbreaking. And beautiful. It was a love story at its best. And what I loved about it the most is that I didn't focus on the sad parts, it's about Summer and Cooper. How they feel about each other and the amazing relationship and bond they created. I think I had a feeling how this was going to go, mostly by what others were saying about it. But I knew that wouldn't be how the book was defined. And I was right. Am I sad? Yep. But that's not what I'm remembering. I'm remembering these two amazing characters. I cried for the last 20% or so then even more when I read Seths words at the end. I then realised this book totally came from the heart. Thank you Seth for giving us this personal and awesome story 😊

There are no words I could use that would do this book the justice it deserves and I wish Amazon had a higher review system so I could give it 10 stars!The Summer remains touches parts of your heart and soul that you didn’t realise existed. It’s so much more than just a love story, it’s a journey along the highway of life that everyone travels, but so many of us do it without truly opening our eyes and hearts to the people and places along the way and miss out on some fantastic scenery, friends and memories to be made.I’ve never cried reading a book before until now. Seth King has a way to make you stop and think about everything you thought you knew about life, love and the world in general and look at it through different eyes.Summer and Cooper’s love for each other went beyond what anyone could ever hope for in their own lives and as their friendship developed into so much more, they fought against the stigmas and judgements that society and social media forced on them and showed everyone what the true meaning of love is.This book should be read by everyone in the world, it’s that fantastic and I look forward to hopefully seeing it as a movie one day. It’s a book I will never forget, thank you Seth.

The Summer Remains is proof that you can be an avid reader and believe you have found the perfect read, only then to be thrown from your proverbial thousand book shelf and shown that it only takes one to change you. Seth King has not only written a breathtaking and deeply profound love story, but he has set a precedent that very few will ever reach.If I'm honest, I wasn't sure about this book at first. I found the sentences long and somewhat ramblish, the dialogue was excessive at times and I felt myself pushing away from a story that I knew was going to likely depress me in ways that I wasn't ready to acknowledge, but then I realised that I was looking at this in the wrong way. I am that Facebook freak! I am the girl with the pretty ring and the house in the country, and all those things that Summer despised, but what made Summer unique. Her outlook on life may have been jaded and forlorn due to her disability, and her last wish to fall in love may even have been cliche and selfish to others, I just couldn't deny the bigger picture here...This is a story about us.Life.The fault of man and our twisted coping mechanisms when it comes to all things 'different.'This isn't just a love story that spans three months over one Floridian summer, but a real eye opening, thought-provoking tale of what it must feel like to be swimming against a tide, when the one to pull you from the depths is the one you are destined to destroy. But I couldn't blame our heroine for any of it, because I was so proud of her for taking that final leap.Cooper, our hero is no stranger to strife, this is where he really comes into his own. He seemed older than his peers, a little mysterious in his ways, and a true book hero in every sense of the word.This book washed over me like a thousand summer tides that took my breath away. Yes, there are some upsetting scenes, but each one breathed new life into me. I started to connect to a story in very few ways I ever have before, and my tears towards the end were justified and honest.There are so many passages highlighted on my kindle, but there are some things you just don't want to share. That is my ode to Summer. I will not share her words, just tell you that this story is one that will live with me for a very long time and I implore you to read it!Seth, you are an extraordinary writer and from what I can tell by your dedication, a wonderful man. Summer and Cooper have meddled their way into my book loving beating heart, and your message deep into my soul. Never will I share a pity smile again, but nod serenely... and maybe even talk about the weather! ;)Thank you for your words, and the lesson that The Summer Remains teaches us. For we are not perfect and we could all use a little saviour in our lives. God knows, this book is now one of mine.